Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Words can never capture that which is beyond all things, but here we go anyway.

The One knows itself as the only reality. This is unquestionable.

The peace, that is the One, is beyond anything that the mind can comprehend. It is absolute. It is a peace born from timeless existence and sole presence that is truly at home with itself. It is a peace that just one taste of would satisfy a human mind for a lifetime. It is a peace so profound that nothing can disrupt it - just as nothing can touch space, nothing can touch this all-prevailing peace. It is vibrant stillness and screaming silence.

The source knows itself as timeless- without beginning and without end. This knowing is absolute. There is absolute certainty in the existence of the One. No question can arise in the One, as all is clearly known. Not a knowing of things, as the human mind collects, (although that is present moment to moment), but a knowing of the single reality, that I Am. The Love and Peace of the One are the same –seemingly different yet in perfect harmony and balance. Nothing moves, while everything is vibrant and seemingly alive.

As seeming individuals, we use a word called love. When speaking of the Love that is the One, the human conditional love is something different. The Love of the One, like the Peace, is absolute and unassailable. It is a Love that is complete and present in a source that is timeless. The mind would draw the analogy to a Love and Peace that have evolved into perfection over a timeless existence. Yet, the word perfection is too limiting.

The One knows itself as all pervading yet without location or space to fill. The One knows itself as absolute power – absolute presence, yet nothing to effect.

The One – as the attempt above describes, is what you are. The One does not exist without what you are and you are not without the One. One presence. One Consciousness. One awareness. There are no individuals within the One.

Friday, September 4, 2009

It is a simple question, but the answer is profound. The answer carries with it ramifications that will undo core beliefs about who you think you are. With just a little watching, you may discover that the answer to the question is not known until the thought arises. If this is true, what does that mean for who you think you are?

Because the next thought is not and cannot be known until it is already present, some questions may arise….

If I don’t know what the next thought is going to be, who comes up with it?

If I don’t know what the next thought is going to be, how can I know what choices are going to be made?

If I don’t know what choices are going to be made, who does?

If I don’t know what choices are going to be made, am I making them at all?

In thinking about the mind, there is often a sense that the mind and brain are two different things. The thought may be that the mind is somehow an ethereal private world that is cherished or is perhaps a tormentor - while the brain is often ignored as having anything to do with the mind. As an example, a friend recently made the statement, “I’m going to sell everything I own and move into my mind - since I live there anyway.” The mind gives us a sense of place, whereas the brain just appears to be an idea in the mind.

We know of course that the brain is storing information and carrying on bodily functions. But this is really more of a belief than a true knowing because we can’t see or feel the brain carrying out its functions. There is no sensation of the brain sending a signal to blink the eye, no seeing of the brain storing or retrieving information from memory, or even translating these words. If something is touched with a finger, there is contact with that something, and it is known. But, trying to make contact with the brain seems impossible. Therefore, the idea of a mind receives the attention – contact is possible with thoughts and feelings and they become the focus. The mind appears to be active – in the head- while the brain appears to be silent. Perhaps the two different labels of brain and mind appear to mean something different, but are, in actuality, referring to the same thing. Perhaps if we got square with the facts things would appear differently.

Is there a mind separate from the brain? Is what we refer to as the mind just the thinking process of the brain? Perhaps, if we dropped the label of mind and just saw the brain for what it is, a complex network of cells that make up a limited, habitual, machine type organ, the mind would loose some of its seeming authority. An analogy has been drawn from the computer function of “garbage in garbage out”. The brain is truly no different. In regards to what we refer to as the mind, all the brain is doing is organizing information, combining information, and bringing ideas and behaviors back out. The brain is a conditioned organ. It is nothing but a machine. The conditioning that it has received was started millions of years ago and through a seeming series of events, is what it is, right now, down to the last cell, memory, and thought.

Buddha is purported to have said, "Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof.”

Francis Crick - Nobel Prize recipient in medicine for deciphering the DNA code said, “You, your joys, sorrows, memories, ambitions, your sense of identity, free will and love are no more then behaviors of a vast assembly of nerve cells."

Any thought is just a movement of energy - it is just mental noise..

The thought that there is a you or that there is no person - is just mental noise.

The thought that self-realization has or has not occurred - is mental noise.

Anything that appears in the manifested reality - whether it appears as a thought, mind, body, other, no-one, – anything, nothing - is, in the final understanding, just appearance in a non-conceptual awareness.

What the One source is - cannot be perceived or conceived simply because there is no other to perceive the One. Yet, there is an undeniable presence that the “I” thought refers to. Find what the mind calls “I.” Be relentless until the Source is clear. Everything conceivable and perceivable is appearance - in the presence/awareness - that belongs to no one. That, I am.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

If the “I” is just an illusion, with no independent existence, then what can you do towards self-realization? Some “teachers” says there is nothing you can do. If you are a seeker - that is frustrating and just does not seem right. There certainly seems to be a “me” doing things. Others say, to investigate the “I.” Ask the question, “Who am I?” As always, the problem is trying to understand these seemingly conflicting pointers in the mind. What is this non-existent “I” supposed to do? Nothing? Even that is something.

These obviously appear to be two very different approaches. But, neither is intended to be the answer. They are, like everything else, just pointers. Taken literally, it is a hopeless situation. The “teachers” who would say, there is nothing you can do will pass the salt if asked. Seemingly, someone did something.

Ask someone what day it is and the mind responds. In the same way, ask someone to inquire, “Who am I?” and the mind responds. The question is whether or not “someone” responded – or - is it all apart of the natural functioning?

Certainly it seems like someone is doing the thinking, passing the salt, and asking "Who am I?", but under investigation that idea is seen to be false. The realization is that there has never been “anyone” thinking thoughts or doing things. Thoughts, like everything else, come and go according to the influences upon the brain. Just as a drop of water moves around in the river without an independent nature, so thoughts arise and subside without anyone choosing or controlling the activity.

The concept that there is nothing you can do to bring the search to an end is true. Yet, doing is happening all the time. The body is hungry and eating happens. The body is tired and sleep happens. The search itself is happening. If it is true that there is no doer, then a lot is still getting done! So, there is no one telling you to inquire, “Who am I?” There is no one to inquire, “Who am I?” Yet, the inquiry still happens. When it is seen that the “I” that believes it is doing the inquiry is just a simple thought with a complex web of concepts supporting it, then no one uncovered the false center of “me.”

Oneness

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What Others Have Said About Oneness

"This short book has more direct pointing packed into less than a hundred pages than you'll find in most books that go on and on for a thousand or more. What needs saying is said -- simply and directly." lotusandrose.com

This is a beautiful book. It is very simple, direct and to the point. It will be a benefit to many people. I am very pleased that the message which Nisargadatta Maharaj was a vehicle for is being passed on. This lineage is influencing many and is continuing to spread the message throughout the world. It is obvious that the author has investigated along the lines he points to in this book. He has dispersed the clouds of conceptual beliefs with basic clear seeing. This book itself is the proof that he knows whereof he speaks. The book takes the seeker locked in the confusion of the mind to the immediacy of the Natural State. Don’t under-rate the obviousness and simplicity contained in this book and the search is over! “Sailor” Bob Adamson.

I've read "Oneness" and was so delighted to complete a journey that was unnecessary and there all along. Wow! I've read loads of books on Non-Duality over the past year or so and no one has said it more clearly than you... B.H.

Wow, what a powerful book! I'm truly speechless and absolutely certain there is nothing more that can be said. So let me contradict myself by saying the search is over and now there is the recognition of peace, love and freedom that is ever-clear and available. It's now seen there no me to get anything and yet all is understood. This has always been the case and yet seems to have gone unnoticed. With much gratitude from nowhere! B.L.

This book really RESONATES ... and I have not seen anything quite like it ... great. It takes the reader ....at least, this (voracious) reader ... deep into a natural seeing.... like being with Bob Adamson or John Wheeler, where in the presence of one abiding AS this, the mind seems to take a back seat. This book is dangerous to that what believes it is real. C.H.

That piece is the best, it got through ...... T.M.

Your expression of this understanding is the most direct and clearest of any I've encountered. R.F.

Reading your book this morning was ''the missing link.'' Having tried ''who am i'' and not really understanding what the heck I was doing, only barely getting what it was pointing at, it finally ''hits home'' now. Another pointer and a powerfull one, that book of yours. It is very tricky using words to describe the indescribable and I guess the most they can do is help to create a stopping or seeing through of the thoughts that have fooled you into thinking that they are you. Your book does this better than most for ''me''. P.C.

I want to convey to you my appreciation of the work as it has been truly the first piece of western work which explains "you are not". Thank you. M.D.

I just wanted to thank you for your book.. It is wonderful to have someone explain advita in plan English. Your book has finally made it so simple that even I got it. D.H.

Truly fantastic. Magnificent. You bring the timeless spaceless reality to life through your words. Neo-Advaitins may moan a bit about the inability of words to express that which is both inconceivable as well as inexpressible, but when the words are Right On!, then the Truth may just appear to appear! I think your book is HUGE, in terms of the impact it can, or will, have. The fact that it is, Thank God, CONCISE and truly an expression of the enlightened point of view, means that it can be read over and over and over again, which I DEFINITELY intend to do. Even though there is no path, no teaching, etc., Chapter 15 "The End of Suffering" is about as close as one can get to a "manual" or whatever, of true transformation. I don't do "spiritual practices" of any kind, but I DO plan to use your outline of the "process" of going out from the One, experiencing the illusion of duality=SUFFERING, and resolving all conflict, etc. by "returning" to the One we never really left, and recognizing THAT's who we always already ARE!! When I first encountered "I Am That" in 1982, what attracted me to Nisargadatta was not the carrot of Enlightenment or the idea of Self-Realization, but the simple idea of bringing an end to SUFFERING (as a separate being or self). With "Oneness" the circle is complete. P.F.

I read your book some time ago and I have been letting it sink in. Although the book itself is very brief, the depth is astonishing. You did indeed go beyond what other "nondual" books present. Nothing I have read or studied has come close to your clear exploration of "Who Am I". More importantly, fewer still have pointed at the Absolute state,which M. Nisargadatta states is prior to consciousness. P.D.

I love John’s book. His wonderfully lucid and direct prose hit me like a ton of bricks. He expresses the basics of Advaita in the clearest, most easy to understand way, and also conveys the most advanced concepts right alongside the simplest, and it makes sense! A really great little book, highly recommended. A.T.

John Greven has done a good job in making the message simple. You are what you seek. There is nothing to attain. This book gives the basic understanding of oneness (non duality). It explains clearly the oneness and it has succeeded in unraveling the lies that we are never the body,nor the thoughts nor are we in the body.What you are has apparently becomes what you think you are. I love this book and I have made this book my travelling companion. I shall never leave home without it. This book is a beautiful inquiry into 'Who am I?' with direct pointers at Transcendental Truth. Questions are asked from many angles and we look at a simple pointing to the experience of reality, without the filter of the mind, to that which is common to all of us, that which the mind has overlooked. You drop the suffering of the separate ego by seeing your true nature as one with all beingness. You investigate the claims, beliefs and assumptions that the mind has told you. Upon examination of your beliefs, you see them effortlessly fall away, as those concepts are seen to be false. I was left in a deep peace, "Once the conceptual 'I' is dropped by the mind as a valid center, then the door swings open to what is being pointed to, the emptiness that is full." You see "It is all just appearance within the source and the source is what you are." This book provides a simple, in-depth analysis of self inquiry, with profound insights, stated with a wry wit and an unwavering pointing at Presence/Awareness as the Oneness that we are. Your book was the final straw. The clarity was exactly what was needed to see the me, the life story, the saga, as just another thought, a consequence of the mind's natural activitiy. E.G,

One of my favorite non-duality books, it is a slim volume, but packed with insight on every page. John has a way of undermining the most stubborn beliefs with a simple turn of phrase. A very intelligent, helpful book. A.N.

This book will only resonate with a select group of people. Of those only a few will really get the full message. This book's message is simple yet incredibly profound. Just as Einstein sought to simplyfy physics and came to the realization that all is relative and E=MC(2), this book reveals the underlying simplicity of true sprititual reality - beingness = oneness. Thank you for writing such a beautiful book! It is now time for me to throw away all my books... CS